[chanced]

This was posted on reddit awhile ago but taken down and reposted several times.

This bio really made me go "wtf?":

> Loraine was born in London. She was an ordinary, hardworking family person, with nothing to worry about beyond paying the rent at the end of the month or keeping the fridge full. Until in 2009 she came to Barcelona on holiday. Soon after she arrived her passport was stolen from her and she had a series of problems with the British embassy. Somebody had made illegal use of her passport. So Loraine found herself in a strange place, unable to get home. She didn’t know anyone there and her circumstances meant she couldn’t ask for help from England, either. She had to sell all her possessions and, in time, learn to speak Spanish. “Living in the street is a wonderful adventure,” she says. In the street she discovered a new city, a new country and a new culture. “There are lots of people who prefer to sleep under the stars.” She also made lots of friends who helped her in a completely unfamiliar world.

I'm not suggesting the company is involved but that story is incredibly suspect. They also seem to somewhat glamorize the "street life" in some of their bios.

[UVB-76]

I know this is absolutely not the case in large parts of the world, but in many developed countries it does takes some degree of desire to remain street homeless for any significant period of time.

The support is often there for the taking, but some combination of mental health problems, drug dependency, etc. will see a person "choose" to live on the streets.

[Mz]

I am really uncomfortable with your statement. I am homeless. Well before I became homeless, I had a class on homelessness. Which is to say this is something I have both studied and also lived firsthand.

Due to my medical condition, I am unwilling to remain in a homeless shelter. They simply aren't clean enough for my needs. I would take real help in a heartbeat if it were available. But the kind of "support" that is available to homeless individuals is often rather sucky, to say the least.

So, yeah, you could say I "chose" to not go into a shelter and to thus remain on the street. That isn't completely inaccurate. But it sure makes my life sound a lot more empowered than I am experiencing it as being.

Let me put it this way: Many people wind up on the street by leaving an abusive relationship. So you could say, hey, they chose to be on the street. They could have remained with the person providing a roof over their head. But it sort of conveniently sweeps their very real problems and challenges under the rug.

[tommi]

What is the real help you need?

[Mz]

I need help developing an income that doesn't keep me sick. I run various websites. At the moment, I need help figuring out how to get traffic. There are some other things that need work but I think the fact that I don't know how to get traffic is currently my biggest issue.